The Issues

“We will spare no effort to free our fellow men, women and children from the abject and dehumanizing conditions of extreme poverty, to which more than a billion of them are currently subjected. We are committed to making the right to development a reality for everyone and to freeing the entire human race from want.”

This is the time for action:

2010 is a critical year for the international community’s efforts to make poverty history: With five years to go until the deadline for the eradication of the worst forms of poverty, and with a major UN Summit planned for September, this is the year that promises need to be turned into action.

When the leaders of 189 countries signed onto the Millennium Declaration at the 2000 UN Millennium Summit, there was a palpable sense of urgency. Urgency to "free our fellow men, women and children from the abject and dehumanising conditions of extreme poverty, to which more than a billion of them are currently subjected."

In March 2010, the UN Secretary-General presented his MDG Progress Report, in which he indicated that if nations deliver on their financial commitments, the world can still achieve the MDGs. He said that "falling short of the MDGs would be an “unacceptable failure, moral and practical”.

We know it can be done:

The Millennium Development Goals are unique in many powerful ways: They represent an explicit agreement between all the world’s major economic players, with poor countries pledging to improve policies and governance and increase accountability to their own citizens, and wealthy countries pledging to provide the necessary resources. For the first time, entire governments are committed to the achievement of a jointly agreed recipe to end global poverty.

And for the first time, governments have agreed to measure their performance. The Goals are not just lofty statements of intent: precise monitoring mechanisms have been put in place, in the form of national Millennium Goals reports and the Secretary General’s reports to the General Assembly.

The Goals are clearly achievable. Individual Goals have already been achieved by many countries in the space of only 10-15 years. Countries like Ethiopia, Tanzania, Bangladesh, Nepal, The Gambia, Rwanda, Eritrea, Malawi, Mozambique, Niger, Honduras, Egypt, Uganda, Zambia, South Africa or Vietnam have achieved remarkable success in getting on track to meet certain Goals, often in the face of extreme poverty, war, natural disasters and other major challenges.

The Millennium Development Goals can be met in every nation. Governments must simply make the achievement of the Goals a priority, invest the necessary resources and ensure accountability to their citizens.

Ireland has an obligation:

Ireland signed up to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) at the Millennium Summit in September 2000, as world leaders came together at a landmark moment to insist that they would not tolerate the extreme inequality in the world and would do all in their power to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger. Through the MDGs, they created an unprecedented shared framework to eradicate extreme poverty through coordinated global action.

Since the Millennium Summit, Ireland has repeatedly stated its support for the MDGs, and it is showing leadership in relation to HIV & AIDS, hunger and aid effectiveness. In support of the MDGs, Ireland pledged to increase its overseas aid (Official Development Assistance - ODA), so that we would reach the UN target of spending 0.7% of national income on overseas aid.

Since its original pledge in 2000, the Government has twice shifted the date for achieving this international commitment, and now states that its aim is to reach the UN target of a minimum 0.7% by 2015 at the latest.

In September 2010, Member States of the UN came together in New York to discuss what progress had been made towards the MDGs and agree on the actions that need to be taken. Ireland cannot afford to go to New York, without tangible proof that we will keep our promise to the world’s poorest people.